Good Sport!

So Sienna loves loves loves doing make-up right now. She loves getting it put on her and really loves putting it on other people. She loves dressing up in this little dance costume...I have got to put her in a dance class...anyway....

This is how much Jackson loves his little sister....he lets her do this to him! Oh what a good sport!

Love you Jackson!

And she not only gets her little hands on her brothers but she somehow talks her brother's friends into it to.

This is Cooper's best friend Dylan and wow what a good sport he is!!!!! He even let her do his hair....not sure he will be very happy about this on my blog but it's worth the grief he might give me.....

Seriously Good Sports!

Coop

Coop will probably kill me for posting this but it's just too good to not! This is how Coop sleeps...he cracks me up! Love you Cooper!!!

Reality

So this morning I am running around like I always do in the mornings...getting lunches made, kids off to school, myself ready to go to the gym, and Sienna is still sleeping...I struggle with...do I wake her up? will she be a bear? does she need to be sleeping? I am watching the clock...8:15, 8:20, 8:30...I am so torn. To most people reading this they are probably thinking...what is the big deal it's just a spin class but to me it gets me through my day...helps me be a happier mom.

I know I am lucky to be able to go to the gym everyday and that my body is healthy and gets to exercise. I count my blessings everyday for that.

She starts to stir about 8:40, I am thinking ok I can still get there by my 9:00 class if I really hurry. Well Sienna did not wake up in a happy mood...didn't want to get out of bed... didn't want to get dressed, then didn't like the shirt I put on her...crying the entire time. I feel my blood start to boil a bit watching the clock..thinking now ok if I am 5 minutes late it will be okay. Well it wasn't happening. She was not going to budge...stubborn little thing.

I finally realize we aren't gonna get there in time, and as I sit there thinking about how frustrated I was to not be able to go I start to realize how very blessed I am to have Sienna in my life. How happy she makes me most days :) how she comes with me everywhere most of the time very happily. I remember the blog I have been reading of a lady in my neighborhood who's baby has a rare and horrible cancer. How she has 3 other kids and a sick baby in the hospital. How she has the best most positive attitude about it all. About that poor little baby who is starting chemo and has not 1 but 3 cancer tumors and isn't even 1 year old. If you want to read about him you can go here.

http://declansjourney.com/

It reminds me everyday how blessed I am in my life. Four healthy, awesome kids.

So Sienna and I had some breakfast together, and we climbed back in bed to snuggle, and I am going to enjoy every minute of it.

Spring and Easter

Well if you live on the East Coast you can understand when I say HURRAY spring is finally here! We had a long long cold winter and I think everyone is so happy for spring this year more than ever!

So much so that I had to go and buy a little spring decoration because I was so happy!

So we almost forgot to color Easter eggs this year...but we remembered in the nick of time!




Sienna enjoyed eating quite a few of the eggs....

So we aren't the most creative group but they looked pretty to us!

On to Easter Morning....waiting on the stairs to come down and see their baskets....so painful to have to sit there and wait!

Sienna went straight for the shoes!

FYI Sienna insisted on wearing that headband down...after a mini meltdown that she didn't like her hair...I am in sooooo much trouble!

Hunter was too cool to go check out his basket with the rest of the kids...so his dad took him down...a wrestling match I am not sure he will win anymore with Hunter's size....

Boys got a batting cage that they were very excited about and lets hope it stops the balls from hitting all my windows!!

Now on to the egg hunt...as I got complaints from all the kids about the Easter Bunny doing it outside last year! They all really wanted it back inside so the Easter Bunny left all the eggs inside...and in some of the eggs this year was cash money...as soon as the boys got wind of that they were all about the egg hunt. There is always a golden egg....none of them could find it! I told them that is why it's called a egg hunt....they actually have to search and if it's for money they have to look hard!

I think Jackson was actually the winner of the most cash....he was on a mission. He is trying to save his money up for a new fishing pole so that was his motivation.

After the egg hunt we had a little of this....

And then we were lucky enough to have General Conference today which was so nice on Easter Sunday. Great talks and my favorite was E. Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk.

Then we had Easter Dinner with the family...fun as always. More egg hunts...and Hunter was gonna participate this time!

And he was pretty excited to find that egg!

Sienna too!

The big cousins were so sweet helping the little ones find eggs...Jordan and Sienna

Nicolas and Sienna

Lana and Sienna

Baby Louisa and Summer looking for eggs to..I think Louisa really needs to find some chocolate and eat it up because she is withering away! :) Oh I love her chubbiness!

Conwey's cute sisters, nieces Paige, Lana, and Baby Louisa.

The guys had a mean game of basketball going on....I don't think they left the court the whole day....

Madie and Drew

Grandpa Ed watchin his grand kids with a smile on his face.

And how stinkin cute is she? Ohhhhh I just love those cheeks!!!

So as I type up this post in my cozy bed right now I am very Thankful today for a beautiful day, a great family, wonderful friends, and Easter Sunday!

Spring Break...

So we didn't get to to anywhere fun warm and sunny for spring break...with the craziness of Conwey's job stuff but we still had a great week and it went from 40 degrees to 80 degrees all in the same week. I don't know if you know this about me but I LOVE warm sunny weather.... :)
We all loved sleeping in every day and just not having to be anywhere. It made us all very excited for summer. Conwey took a couple of days off and did a little of this...

Cooper asked if he could have a few friends over to hang out during spring break more than just his everyday friends that come over EVERYDAY which is actually fine with me I would much rather have them all at my house where I can watch and listen...if you know what I mean!

So yesterday was the day that he had people coming over...and what was a few people coming over ended up being a spring break partay...and yes it is written like that paaaarrtay!

Coop and I went to the store and he picked out all the food...can you say child hood obesity!

They had fun though...a game of basketball tuckered them out a bit....a lot if Coops friends were out of town and couldn't come but I was thinking Thank heavens these 12-13 yr olds can eat!

Thanks to my good friend Holly for coming and staying with me the whole time! I don't know what I would have done without her! She also made Cooper his favorite cookies and brought them to the party.

Little Jackson and Sienna having a picnic....

I tried to get a picture of when the girls came by but it was too dark...yes I am that mom that takes those pictures!

So then Coop wanted to have a fire in the fire pit....I was thinking probably not the best idea with boys...but he talked me into it and surprisingly it was ok. When everyone had left Coop, Sienna and I decided to roast marshmellows and make smores.

It was a lot of fun and the perfect night outside!

It was a fun night for everyone...oh and on a side note...Jackson was golfing with Conwey all day and then he, Conwey, and Hunter went in for Merry's awesome play that she was the star of! We knew we had the party so Coop, Sienna and I went the night before to see it. It was awesome and Merry really was the BEST! She always is though....

Now on to Easter.... :)

Hungry Girl

So I've been getting Hungry Girl daily updates on email for quite a while now and I finally bought one of her cookbooks....There are so many great recipes. I really want to try every single one. I really wish she would she would just open some restaurants! I am on a quest to get my family to eat better. We do pretty good most of the time but I think we can do better. I know I will never get them to eat the stuff I eat but maybe just maybe I can trick them with some of these recipes. So I am wondering if any of you out there have ever tried any of her recipes and if so what are your favorites?

On a little side note....I watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution the other day and I absolutely LOVED it! I am recommending it to everyone! PLEASE watch it! He is so great and if he can help schools get healthy it would be amazing!

Best Birthday Ever!

I was sooooo dreading my birthday this year. It really just isn't fun getting older every year. I wanted it to come and go without any acknowledgement but I am soooo glad it didn't because it really was one of my best birthday's ever.
Last year was a really weird birthday and I was so afraid I was going to have bad dreams again about my mom and wake up all emotional but I didn't! Hurray. I woke up to my cute little family around my bed with a present that I have been wanting for about 3 years now. Yes I got my macbook! I was sooooooooo happy! Now I can get in my cozy bed and put on my dvr'd shows and BLOG! Woo hoo! Conwey really is one of the best gift givers I have ever met. Thanks Conwey! I sure love you!

So then my gym girls had arranged a lunch at one of my favorite places to eat Sweet Water Tavern. Yum! It was loads of laughs and fun. I love those girls! Holly had made me healthy and I must say delicious "cupcakes" that I have been craving ever since!



Sweet Carmen made yummy real cupcakes for everyone and even brought cute boxes to put them in so everyone could take some home. These girls really need to open a bakery!

So after lunch I raced home to pack and head out to NEW YORK CITY! It was my surprise bday gift from Julie. Talk about the best surprise ever! She had written in a few months ago to the Regis and Kelly show to try and get tickets. She just happened to get them for the day after my bday. We have talked for years about how we would love to go to the show because we both feel like Kelly could be our BFF! (I am sure we are the only ones that feel that way out there too right!)

It all just seemed to work out because I am so not very good at leaving whoever my youngest child is and going on trips so Julie's husband Jon just happened to be up there for work and was staying a couple of blocks away from our hotel that was in Times Square.

Arriving at our hotel..Sienna was asleep and wasn't too sure about Times Square...


This was our first Girls Trip and it was so fun! I can't wait for many many more of them!

This was us leaving for the show when Jon got there at 6:30 am (bless his heart!) he watched the girls...took them out to breakfast and to the Toy-r-us store there.

This was outside the show. We thought we were going to have to wait outside in the cold because there was a huge line that we were standing in until we figured out it was the stand by line. We got to go right in. It was a long process but sooooo worth it!

They led us in through the way Regis and Kelly walk in...for those of you that watch the show, right past the gum wall...it was pretty cool.

They let you pick where ever you want to sit when you walk in so we jumped on the front row until we realized it was beautiful baby week and there was a big desk with frames all over it right in front of us so we moved up a row and over so we could get a good view. It looks big on tv but its really small and intimate in there. I think there were 130 people in the audience. I loved looking at everything they do behind the camera...if I had another life that is what I would love to do, work behind the scenes on something like that. I just find it fascinating!

So back to Kelly... yes she is that cool and funny in person...so cute! Looks exactly like she does on tv....I thought she would be just soooo skinny but she really looks just like you see her everyday. (yes she is still very little but not gross little)

So it was a commercial break and Kelly walked over to talk to one of the producers and Julie yells...KELLY....and waves her hands up...can you come here...Kelly says why sure and walks over very carefully because of the 10 inch heels she was wearing!

Julie asks if we can take a pic with her...she says sure...we go down..I feel like I am living in a surreal bubble at this point and Julie says... we feel like you are our bff! Kelly laughs...she probably gets a lot of crazy stalkers...not that Julie and I are stalkers but they did have to kick us out at the end...we just wanted to be the last ones there...what's wrong with that??

No Regis on Friday's so we were hoping for her hubby Mark...but we got Anderson Cooper instead.....

I feel like I am really writing a lot of details but I just don't want to forget anything when I read back on it.

So after the show we went and got the girls and headed to The American Doll Store...oh my word what a store! Sienna was giddy and squealing, and even though she didn't show it as much I know Em was too.

We walked there and stopped along the way.....

So we got to the store and after walking around looking at everything the girls decided they wanted to get the dolls hair done at the doll hair salon, and they also pierced the dolls ears! Unbelievable! It was so cute! We tried to talk Em into getting hers done but she was just too sure it was going to hurt!

matching headbands...

So after walking around the entire store looking at all the different outfits they had I was relieved that Sienna picked this one instead of the sparkly ice skating one she was thinking of....

And this was Sienna's mode of transportation on the way to dinner....poor Julie!

Sienna sure looks comfy though...

We decided just to eat at Planet Hollywood..it was right next to our hotel and new the girls would like it. We thought about going to see Wicked but decided to save that one till Sienna is just a little older.



Sienna was taking pictures of herself....

and this was after about 5 minutes in the car...it was a packed, fun 24 hrs!

So I would like to publicly thank Julie Linton for the amazing birthday! The long talks, the laughs, the thoughtfulness...and on top of the tickets she gave me the amazing gift of turning a year of my blog into a hard copied book! It really made me realize how important this blog is and what a great thing to be able to leave my kids! I am so excited to print the other 2 years!

I want to also thank my hubby and kids for being such great sports about us going. I love you guys!

I felt a bit bad when the next day I told Conwey.. oh and btw my friends Holly and Carmen had previously planned a little spa day at the red door salon for us. Which was sooooo nice and so much fun to all go together. I am telling you I have the greatest, sweetest, bestest friends a girl could ask for! I feel so very lucky to have such amazing people in my life. They got me a massage and pedicure! So fun! I am thankful to everyone who went in on it. (Holl, Carmen, Stacy, Melissa, and Jules) Thank you!!! I brought my camera to take pictures and then we forgot it in the locker and didn't get any! :(

So Thank you to everyone who made my birthday so awesome. Whether it was a gift, a heartfelt letter, a blog post, a phone call or a facebook shout out...I felt very loved and knew my mom was smiling down on me!